Sunday, January 25, 2009

365 Days Ago

TheGF and i have now officially been going out for one year and i'm pretty happy about that especially since it almost didn't happen. TheGF only told me last month that on our date a year ago, she wasn't impressed with something I had done.

Flashback to Jan08: Due to strong word of mouth, we went to go see Juno at the Cineplex theatre down on Winston & Dundas. It was a thursday night and the movie had already been out for a few weeks, so the theatre was pretty empty. Lots of seats to choose from.

We decided to sit up by the second last row since it was in the middle of the theatre. Perfect viewing. Eventually a group of teenagers came in and sat in the row behind us. I'd guess 14 or 15 years old. Eight of them or so. Half boys, half girls.

... and kids being the kids they are, they were a little rowdy and hyper. You know, boys acting a certain way to impress the girls. Girls giggling a certain way to attract the boys. This was all going down during the previews and i knew if i didn't put an end to this shit, it'd be going on throughout the movie - which i really hate! Plus i had to impress this girl i was with!

I look back at one of the louder boys and firmly say in the most passive-aggressive tone i could muster: "Yo, shut the fuck up!" Pretty firm enough to get the kids to be quiet and macho enough to impress my date. I didn't exactly pull an Opposite George Costanza but they were still a little shocked. One of the other guys didn't know how to respond except by nervously repeating "uh, yeah, 'shut the fuck up'" to the other guys.

Flash forward to a month ago when TheGF and I were talking about that night. She mentioned how VERY unimpressed she was with my comment/action. "I thought you were a nice guy, and then you did that! I was sooo unimpressed! Like, 'who is this guy?!'"

Good thing my game was on point for the rest of the night (maybe i'll write about that some time) because if the date ended right after the movie, who knows what would've happened to us, laugh.

Sunday, January 04, 2009

Question: Why are shwarma stands here?

A few days ago I went to the local grocery store with my cousin to pick up some water. Past the checkout, they have a few different food stalls: Fried chicken, Chinese dumplings, fried chicken, noodles, fried chicken (Filipino’s LOVE the fried chicken) and… shwarma?!?!

It took a while to figure it out, but I realized that there were a lot of OFWs in the MidEast. I guess they loved it so much, they thought they’d bring it back.

I tried out some at the Greenhills shopping area (which is redonkulous!) and it was a bit… different than what I’m used to. The bread is harder and flat; not one of those ‘pocket’ pitas. There’s only onion and tomato as the vegetable toppings. The garlic sauce is pretty much the same, but they have this hot version which is crazy hot (and my cousin generously slathered all over my sandwich because he thought it was mayo/ketchup. Op!). But the biggest difference is that its much smaller. The bread is only about 15cm in diameter…

… Greenhills shopping area is a popular spot for tourists to go and shop. Knock off kicks, bags, jewels, pirated games and software. Its nuts there!

We got there an hour early so we decided to chill at the McDonald’s. It was full of rich people. My cousin pointed out the country’s president’s husband was eating there. My mom wanted to take a picture of him, but we were too embarrassed so we made her stop. My dad also wanted to point out that Mr. Prez was cheap because he was just chilling there with a coffee the whole time was there.

… after Greenhills we went to the SM Mall of Asia which was a big disappointment. It’s supposed to be one of the biggest malls in the world, but it didn’t seem like it. Colour me not impressed!

The good thing about it is that it’s on the edge of Manila Bay. They also happen to be building condos there. A one bedroom 28 square meter spot for about $60,000CDN. Yes, you read that right, 28. Square. Meters.

… went to the super fast food chain Jollibees. I ate two burgers. Shit was disgusting.

… last post I mentioned how dirty the air was at my mom’s city. I forgot one more minor detail: to add that extra hint of ‘au-de-something,’ they like to burn their garbage too. Below is a picture of my cousin Estong taking care of the daily trash. No wonder my boogers are friggin black!

… also, New Years was pretty crazy. They have something kinda similar to cherry bombs here, only they’re half the length and they don’t >pop!< These thing >BOOM!< … LOUD! And those are the lowest tier explosions. One of our uncle’s neighbours were lighting these explosives called 5Stars. Shit was so loud that after the loud as explosion, my hearing would fade out for about 10 seconds, the replaced by a ringing for the next 30. In the picture below, the Judas’ Belt are rolls of the smaller explosives, and the Sawa’s (or snake) are rolls of the bigger 5Stars. I mentioned to my mom that ai would love it there and she said I should bring some back. Beth and I had to look at her all cockeyed. There’s a firework here you have to use away from windows because this one will shatter them. The name? “Good Bye Philippines” The ones we bought for about $1.50CDN shitted all over CityOfMississauga’s CanadaDay “show”

… I’ve seen a family of five people ride on one scooter.

… Manny Pacquiao sells EVERYTHING here! Medicine, Nike gear, etc. But the best thing he pimps? MagicMic! In the electronic stores, they have a karaoke video playing, and instead of crappy mid 1980s footage, they have Manny singing, dancing and most importantly, smiling!

… along the highways, they have massive billboards. They have super giant ones that’re ten stories high! One of my favorites is one about some obesity pill. The headline is “Tanatago ang taba?” which translates to “are you hiding your fat?” and it shows some fat chick trying to cover herself with her big purse and she looks sad. Its sooooooooooo hilarious! There’s other good ads, but pretty much, they just need some Anne Curtis on their and I’m good. Hello Anne Curtis! … also along the highways, they have giant service stations full of restaurants. My cousin says that people come by and hang out there at night… sounds like the loser ginos that do that back home!